Like many, I’m struggling to process the pain our country is feeling right now.

Before anything else, let me say: #BlackLivesMatter .

I am troubled by the rhetoric I am seeing this morning claiming racist posts “must be Russian bots” or upset to see Russian journalists covering a consequential moment in American history, claiming they must be “coordinating” the protests.

Time to wake up, America. This is us.

It was us in Charlottesville. It was us in the 2016 election. The IRA didn’t do anything but create offensive memes that stoked the flames of historical racism that is endemic to America.

We need to own and call out this ugly history, not blame it on a convenient other.

Will external actors attempt to weaponize the online discourse surrounding the protests? Absolutely. Is it that a threat? Yes. But we can’t begin to fight back until we recognize that we are allowing this problem to exist by allowing injustice and inequality to persist.